University of Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz said the Cardinals have a lot of expectations this coming season. On Wednesday at his team's media day, Walz said the veteran group is "embracing the expectations."

The goals are lofty for the University of Louisville women's basketball program this season.

The Cardinals were 26-8 last season but return all five starters and their seven top scorers from last season, while adding another top-five recruiting class and a talented fifth-year senior to the mix.

U of L is ranked among the top five in most of the preseason poll, including as high as No. 2 in one preseason poll.

"Expectations are a great thing," U of L women's coach Jeff Walz said. "It shows you are building a program, putting a product on the floor that people expect big things from. From a coaching side of it, you'd much rather have high expectations that low because if you have the low ones you're probably not going to have a job for very long.

"We like the expectations. We embrace them as a team."

Walz said the Final Four in Dallas is "something we are shooting for," and talked about his teams goal of winning an ACC championship and then moving on to win a national title.

U of L has a ton of talent in the fold.

Junior Myisha Hines-Allen is the preseason ACC Player of the Year, while Mariya Moore, Asia Durr and Briahanna Jackson all averaged double figures last season for the Cardinals.

"We have a lot of talent and we have a deep team," Moore said. "We can go a long way, we just have to stay together as a team."